Jet skiers search port area for missing man

Published Sep 27, 2013 at 08:18PM / Updated Feb 13, 2016 at 06:24PM

The search continued Friday for Brookings resident Harlen Wade Smith, 23, who has been missing since Sunday night.

Volunteers with Curry County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue searched the water around the Port of Brookings Harbor on jet skis Friday evening. Searchers were looking in areas that deputies have not been able to reach on foot, Ward said.

Ward said there have been people walking the around the docks and ports every day looking for Smith, but so far nothing had been discovered.

Ward said they would continue to look until he's found.

Smith was last seen Sunday night and had been drinking that evening. He was last seen heading toward the docks.

The Coast Guard received a call Sunday night reporting a splash and voices in the port. The Coast Guard and the Sheriff's Department searched the water that evening. A size 14 shoe was found at the dock near the ice house that the Sheriff's Department later determined was Smith's.

Divers called in from the Lakeside Fire Department searched the water around the dock Wednesday morning. Although murky water limited visibility, the divers felt the bottom by hand as they made a systematic search of the area around the dock.